What with weather and holidays, haven't flown for a while. Went up Friday (01/04). Not bad, but the runway and taxiways were treacherous. Patchy snow, ice and clear. Taxiing was difficult - went really slow. 10-15 K cross wind - just enough to be difficult. Still, a wonderful time. Hardest part was getting the bird back in the hanger. Had to throw Kitty Litter on the ice so I could pull it in. A day flying is always better than a day working in my book.

It's gonna be another looong (but fun} day. Spent 5 hrs. flying a Bird dog round robin from home to Blythe to tow a banner and then back home, and I don't even get into my real work plane until after dark , This might fit in the "you know you have it bad" thread!

Not flying with Rob B. who finally gave up and headed for The Dalles and a good time. The fog finally lifted around 2:00 at my home base, so I headed over to Pearson (VUO) for a little practice and update my sectionals.

Lots of people out as it was the first good weekend in a while. Beautiful sun and calm winds.

I was surprised to see a number of converted TW cessna's. A fellow a couple hangers down has a 150hp 150G he's converted. Saw a couple more 172 TW conversions.

Steves place. By Estacada, Or.





It doesn't get better than this in Oregon in January.

Craig, we will plan another day. Denis, we have to get you to meet Steve.

Rob

You lucky Troutdaleians! I could have used a little of that wind. This was about the best it got at Aurora yesterday: KUAO 131910Z AUTO 00000KT 5SM BR OVC003 04/03 A3038 AO2 CIG 002V006

Looking SW from Estacada. KUAO is there somewhere.

You win some and you loose some, I guess. January 1st looked just like that except the clouds were ~10 miles farther south.

sweet pix John, Sierras I take it??? Tough life you have...

Is that an Avanti 180 and a Challenger 604?



I went to Alamosa and sat around for... 7 hours. But now I got an OBS in my plane! Yes!

Those 3 valleys of Stead, Reno, and Carson City is one of the prettiest mountain flying places I've seen outside of New Mexico.

Thats where I bought my 140 and I had to do 3 hours of checkout time before I took it home. We went on a little X-C from Stead to Carson City. Neat country..

Mister Willie wrote:Those 3 valleys of Stead, Reno, and Carson City is one of the prettiest mountain flying places I've seen outside of New Mexico.

It's even nicer up in the mountains by Quincy, Nervino, and Lake Almanor, especially in the spring time. Cool pics John, that cell phone actually takes decent quality photos.

1SeventyZ wrote:

Mister Willie wrote:Those 3 valleys of Stead, Reno, and Carson City is one of the prettiest mountain flying places I've seen outside of New Mexico.

It's even nicer up in the mountains by Quincy, Nervino, and Lake Almanor, especially in the spring time. Cool pics John, that cell phone actually takes decent quality photos.

Well to me it's all pretty from a personal airplane.

See ya, Bub

Jen and I flew from Auburn to Siskiyou yesterday...windy, windy windy. We averaged 48 knots across the ground. At one point during a turn my gps said we were going 156 knots, then seconds later we were doing 17 knots. When we landed in Red Bluff winds were 30 gusting to 38 knots, and our landing roll was about six feet. Full of fuel our take off roll was about 18 feet. Big rigs chugging up the grade out of Redding were pulling away from us like we were just standing on the side of the road.

I calculated one hour and fifty two minutes enroute before I checked the winds aloft. The trip ended up being three hours and forty eight minutes. On the trip home our mighty tail wind turned into a mighty side wind, which just about broke my heart. We burned 40 gallons of gas to go 362 miles .

Hammer wrote:Jen and I flew from Auburn to Siskiyou yesterday...windy, windy windy.

So, how was the ride? I canceled a flight through that area in similar conditions last fall because of airmets for turbulence. I tend to err on the conservative side, and always end up wondering if it really was as bad as I thought.

We only hit one significant bit of turbulence, aside from the ground effect when we landed at Red Bluff. Once we left Red Bluff we climbed, reluctantly, to 10,500 before crossing the mountains. This put us in a stronger headwind, but it kept us out of the mountain wave turbulence ripping off the ridges, many of which were laying 90 degrees to the wind. We also diverted well west of Mt. Shasta to make sure we didn't get caught in some gigantic wind eddy on the lee side.

I almost turned around a couple times, but I had a compelling reason to continue, and aside from being very slow, the flight was amazingly smooth.

With this H Pressure over the area I couldn't take it anymore and flew into Hell's Canyon and landed at Pittsburg and Dug Bar. With 12" of snow here at the house, it's a different world down there. It was 40+ and clear and calm at Dug Bar Intern'l. Roy L came by in his jet boat and stopped and we discussed world issues and had a good cup of canyon coffee. Good to see and talk to Roy again. After a bit, I asked Roy what time it was and it was nearly 11:30. I said that I was suppose to met my wife at the airport at 10 and he just reminded me about canyon time....Then it was back to the snow zone...Both strips are in great shape....as are the wind socks....

I flew into an airport today where it was all of three degrees Fahrenheit. No ice or anything but dang it was cold.

Mister Willie

That sounds like fun. It sounds NOT legal. Be careful what you post.
BIG BROTHER or SISTER may be reading this stuff.


flyer

Just thought I'd entertain you guys with some fiction.

All posts describing questionable flying activities are to be considered fictional for legal purposes. Innocent until proven guilty.
I guess I read this post too late to read about the fun stuff!

Eric